COULEURS

Artur Pizarro & Bamberger Symphoniker,
dir. Thomas Rösner

Following the success of Artur Pizarro’s recordings of Rachmaninoff’s Complete Piano Music on Odradek, the “poet amongst pianists” returns with Poulenc’s Piano Concerto. The last of Poulenc’s concertos, this work is jaunty and playful whilst exuding an irresistible Romanticism. Poulenc’s Sinfonietta is a full-scale symphony in all but name, its self-deprecating title a reflection of the composer’s sense of humour and the work’s colourful, urbane character.

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Reviews

“The captivating Poulenc piano concerto… will put a smile on any face… The Bamberger Symphony play well for Thomas Rösner.”Norman Lebrecht / January 2020

Norman Lebrecht / January 2020“No happier way to start a year than Francis Poulenc, few grimmer than Charles Koechlin. This album opens with the little-played Poulenc Sinfonietta, originally intended as a string quartet and allegedly thrown in a Paris gutter when it did not work out. First heard in London in 1948, it’s a Mozart-meets-Stravinsky score, and none the worse for that. Even at his most neo-classical, Igor never got this light.
The captivating Poulenc piano concerto was premiered by the composer himself in 1950. The Boston audience snubbed it as second-rate Rachmaninov, but Poulenc has much more joie-de-vivre, and wears what he called ‘my Parisian sexuality’ out and proud. It will put a smile on any face, outside Boston.
Something Koechlin can’t. If Wagner had been born half a century later in France, he would have been Koechlin. Tepid, imitative, sub-Vaughan Williams at best, Koechlin is the sort of thing the BBC used to play to fill time up to the news. Life’s worth more than this. The Bamberger Symphony play well for Thomas Rösner.”

“… the Bamberg musicians play with a sensuality that is second to none. Both recordings take Koechlin’s works to a new level of interpretation.”
Interpretation ****
Repertoire *****
Sound *****WDR Radio / February 2020

February 2020Interpretation ****
Repertoire *****
Sound *****
The orchestra is known for its bright strings and velvety woodwinds. Conductor Thomas Rösner ensures the best sound balance and transparency. He has a penchant for French repertoire and a lot of experience with orchestras from France, yes, he even assisted the great Georges Prêtre in Vienna. However, Rösner’s recording does not have the temperament here.
With so much attractive music, one may wonder why this concerto has remained so unknown. Pianist Artur Pizarro speculates in an interview on Facebook. The work, which is only 20 minutes long and technically not too demanding, is nothing to shine about, but still requires intensive coordination between the conductor and the orchestra.
This work was undoubtedly done in Bamberg. Artur Pizarro’s interpretation, as round and routine as it is, lacks a bit of wit and elegance, as the pianist and Poulenc expert Eric le Sage, for example, shows.
So if you have to live with small deficits in the case of Poulenc's, the two works by Charles Koechlin, which are collected on the CD, are adorable. Koechlin was a magician of sound and instrumentation. Transparency, beauty and traceability are the main goals that he has pursued in his music. It often points to the mystical, because the deeply devout composer studied astronomy in depth.
“Vers la voûte étoilée” - “In the sight of the starry sky” dates from 1933. The piece was only premiered in 1980, 30 years after Koechlin’s death. Not only this work, but also the orchestra miniature “Sur les flots lointains” - “On distant waves”, the Bamberg musicians play with a sensuality that is second to none. Both recordings take Koechlin’s works to a new level of interpretation.

“Rösner writes in the booklet: ‘Koechlin turns out to be a tireless sound magician who does not shy away from extreme instrumental sonorities and dynamics. This creates completely unfamiliar and partially organic sound mixes, the exact nature of which can only be clarified in detail with the use of the score.’ This is exactly what he convincingly realises in his interpretations.”Pizzicato - Remy Franck / February 2020

Remy Franck / February 2020“Under the musical direction of Thomas Rösner, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra presents a CD with an interesting programme of French orchestral music of the 20th century. Rösner’s account of the Sinfonietta by Francis Poulenc is colourful and lively. The Piano Concerto, first performed by Poulenc himself in 1950, is played by Artur Pizarro, but the performance cannot keep up with the Rogé/Dutoit recording nor with that of LeSage/Denève. This is primarily due to the diffuse and not very transparent sound recording. The Decca technicians have integrated Rogé’s piano much better into the orchestral sound and captured the orchestral sound more slenderly.
Overall, Rösner succeeds better in the two Koechlin works because they demand less elegance, which the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra does not show enough of in Poulenc.
Vers la voûte étoilée op. 129 and Sur les flots lointains op. 130 live from other sounds, as conductor Rösner writes in the booklet: “Koechlin turns out to be a tireless sound magician who does not shy away from extreme instrumental sonorities and dynamics. This creates completely unfamiliar and partially organic sound mixes, the exact nature of which can only be clarified in detail with the use of the score.” This is exactly what he convincingly realises in his interpretations.

“The Portuguese pianist Artur Pizarro is exactly the right interpreter to keep the melodious and at the same time theatrical liveliness of the music in shape, to breathe tension, passion… Thomas Rösner not only knows how to describe this music cleverly, but also to realise it in a fascinating and breathtakingly beautiful way. The performers therefore honour the title of the album.”Onlinemerker - Dr. Ingobert Waltenberger / December 2019

Dr. Ingobert Waltenberger / December 2019“The Bamberg Symphony Orchestra under the musical direction of Thomas Rösner will present a fantastically played CD with French orchestral music from the 20th century that has been superbly realized. Francis Poulenc's "Sinfonietta" is a first-class discovery. Written on behalf of BBC Radio Three in 1947, the almost 30-minute work exudes light-footed post-war humor and a "self-deprecating sense of humor." The evoked musical images are charmingly poetry of cityscapes, all senses delightful walks in a relaxed atmosphere. Melodies and swinging motifs lick or hurry through alleys, over bridges, in cafes and bistros. The world thus constructed is bustling with life and holding together in a playful way. The (collective and individual) happiness felt after regained freedom is deep. Everything breathes fragrant spring, the buds shoot up into the neoclassical sky, hints of Mozart or Tchaikovsky round off the urban soundscape. Why Poulenc titled this great symphonic work "Sinfonietta" can only be interpreted as an act of joyful arrogance.
The piano concerto in C sharp minor, premiered by Poulenc himself on the piano in 1950 (Charles Munch conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra), was also a commissioned work. The musical pendulum in the light-flooded cathedral of French post-romanticism swings from the east (Rachmaninov, Shostakovich, Stravinksy) across the Great Pond (Gershwin) back to the Seine (Saint-Säens) with a little dangle to Italy. In the finale, Brazilian forged a tasty and powerful alliance with the sailor's song “Á la Claire Fontaine”. The Portuguese pianist Artur Pizarro is exactly the right interpreter to keep the melodious and at the same time theatrical liveliness of the music in shape, to breathe tension, passion and at the same time a loose weightlessness.
The so intense and yet volatile French elegant perfume des Poulenc is juxtaposed with two small samples / symphonic poems by Charles Koechlin from 1933 : "Vers la Voûte étoilée" Op. 129 and "Sur les flots lointains en collaboration avec Catherine Urner" Op. 130. The Alsatian, 20 years older, had Gabriel Fauré as a teacher. In the choice of compositional means, Koechlin is much more creative and original than Poulenc was. Koechlin pays homage to the starry sky in polytonal flashes, while impressionistic shimmer is reflected in imaginary wide floods.
The program is audibly a deep concern for the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and Thomas Rösner . As a skilful animator, Rösner converts the mercury flea circus on small notes into a buzzing swarm of fireflies. In his foreword, Rösner breaks a lance for Koechlin. He speaks of incomparable sound spaces and sees Koechlin as a “tireless sound magician who does not shy away from extreme instrumental sonorities and dynamics. This creates completely unfamiliar and partially organic sound mixes, the exact nature of which can only be clarified in detail with the use of the score. And best of all: Thomas Rösner not only knows how to describe this music cleverly, but also to realize it in a fascinating and breathtakingly beautiful way. The performers therefore honour the title of the album.”

“… Poulenc’s Sinfonietta, the new recording from the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra… conductor Thomas Rösner calls it ‘the most perfect example of a mixture of deeply-felt feelings and a winking nonchalance’, and I know what he means… Artur Pizarro joins him for a swift-moving, unsentimental account of the Poulenc Piano Concerto that still manages to capture its sense of wistful nostalgia, and Poulenc’s teacher, Charles Koechlin, brings up the rear with two of his delicately perfumed tone poems… an enjoyable album…”BBC Radio 3: Record Review - Andrew McGregor / 15 February 2020

Andrew McGregor / 15 February 2020“Poulenc’s Sinfonietta, the new recording from the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, and conductor Thomas Rösner calls it ‘the most perfect example of a mixture of deeply-felt feelings and a winking nonchalance’, and I know what he means. The couplings works well; Artur Pizarro joins him for a swift-moving, unsentimental account of the Poulenc Piano Concerto that still manages to capture its sense of wistful nostalgia, and Poulenc’s teacher, Charles Koechlin, brings up the rear with two of his delicately perfumed tone poems. Slightly distant recording but it’s an enjoyable album; Couleurs, they’ve called it, and it’s new from the Odradek label.”

Guy Rickards/ February 2020“There is nothing forgettable about Odradek’s release of Poulenc and Koechlin. Commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Poulenc’s Concerto (1949) is a delight from first (rather Rachmaninovian) bar to last. The opening, somewhat patchwork Allegretto – like the central Andante con moto in E-flat – is in a straightforward A-B-A design, while the concluding Rondeau à la française exuberantly mixes neoclassicism, Brazilian rhythms and a sea shanty. It fell flat at its premiere but this finely articulated, vivacious account from Pizarro and the Bambergers shows what a splendid work it is. They need fear no comparisons with recent rival versions, whether the more sumptuously recorded Lortie (Chandos CHAN 10875) or Christian Ihle Hadland (with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra under Thomas Søndergård, Lawo Classics LWC1173).
The album opens with Poulenc’s marvellous Sinfonietta (1947-8) and closes, intriguingly, with a pair of Koechlin tone poems. Both date from 1933 but neither have any overt links to Poulenc. They make a finely contrasted Impressionist diptych: Vers la voûte étoilée, with its sense of the immensity of space, and the more winsome Sur les flots lointains, based on a tune by his student Catherine Urner. Both are beautifully played by the Bamberg SO under Thomas Rösner.”

Performance: FOUR STARS
“Sur les flots lointains (On the distant waves) is similarly atmospheric, especially with the magical hush towards the end of this carefully controlled performance from the Bamberg Symphony under conductor Thomas Rösner… Rösner finds beautiful moments in the [Sinfonietta’s] exquisite Andante cantabile. Artur Pizarro ensures the graceful aspects of his pianism are to the fore in the Piano Concerto… engaging performances…”BBC Music Magazine - Christopher Dingle / April 2020

Christopher Dingle / April 2020Performance: FOUR STARS
Recording: THREE STARS
“Poulenc and Koechlin may not be obvious bedfellows with their respective idiosyncratic styles. Nonetheless, Poulenc studied with his older compatriot, and they shared an often oblique relationship with prevalent musical trends. Aside from his orchestral cycle on Kipling’s Jungle Book, Koechlin has stayed on the margins of the repertoire and, despite being written in 1933, the two symphonic poems included here were not performed until the 1980s. Vers la voûte étoilée (Towards the starry vault) reflects Koechlin’s interest in astronomy and is a spacious impressionistic meditation on the heavens, with a rousing climax redolent of Vaughan Williams. Drawing on a theme by his student Catherine Urner, Sur les flots lointains (On the distant waves) is similarly atmospheric, especially with the magical hush towards the end of this carefully controlled performance from the Bamberg Symphony under conductor Thomas Rösner.
It may have been better to place these two rarities between the two much more substantial and decidedly perkier Poulenc pieces. The Sinfonietta, his typically diffident title for what is really a full-scale symphony, frolics along suitably in the outer movements, while Rosner finds beautiful moments in the exquisite Andante Cantabile. Artur Pizarro ensures the graceful aspects of his pianism are to the fore in the Piano Concerto, though here, as with the Sinfonietta, some detail is clouded by the resonant acoustic. The colours may not quite blend, but the verve of these engaging performances still emerges.

“Pizarro seems delighted to meet the score on its own terms, turning in a performance of considerable sensitivity and subtlety. Together with Rösner and the Bambergers, he achieves a genuine expressive symbiosis punctuated with disarming earnestness… The whole orchestra acquits itself magnificently in terms of speed, agility and beautifully blended ensemble. Rösner’s focus on the phrase is inerrant and the musicians respond with gorgeously contoured shapes that never miss their mark… It’s a pleasure to hear the orchestra sounding so fine.”Gramophone - Patrick Rucker / April 2020

Patrick Rucker / April 2020“Thomas Rösner’s new recording with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra presents two works each by a pair of 20th-century French composers whose posthumous reputations continue to grow. The earliest of these are Charles Koechlin’s symphonic poems Towards the Vault of the Stars and On the Distant Waves. Both date from 1933, though neither was performed or published until decades after the composer’s death. Francis Poulenc is represented by two post-war works: Sinfonietta, commissioned by the BBC and premiered by the Philharmonia Orchestra in October 1948, and the Piano Concerto, composed for the Boston Symphony and premiered there by Poulenc and Munch in 1950.
Artur Pizarro is the soloist in Poulenc’s Piano Concerto, a work that offers little in the sort of conventional virtuoso display that has made both the Organ Concerto and the Concerto for Two Pianos so enduringly popular. Pizarro seems delighted to meet the score on its own terms, turning in a performance of considerable sensitivity and subtlety. Together with Rösner and the Bambergers, he achieves a genuine expressive symbiosis punctuated with disarming earnestness in the opening Allegretto. The Andante’s ethereal delicacy is at once alluring and the perfect set up for the piquant, bumptious Rondeau à la française.
The Sinfonietta, Poulenc’s largest purely orchestral work, is the antithesis of the understated concerto. The wind and brass choirs have ample opportunity to strut their stuff and do so with distinction. The whole orchestra acquits itself magnificently in terms of speed, agility and beautifully blended ensemble. Rösner’s focus on the phrase is inerrant and the musicians respond with gorgeously contoured shapes that never miss their mark.
The qualities of ensemble that conjure Poulenc’s bright palette are equally successful in the more diffuse, shaded sonorities of Koechlin. Despite pleasurable immersion in these foggy textures, with Rösner as guide, we never lose our way. It’s a pleasure to hear the orchestra sounding so fine.”

FIVE STARS
“Thomas Rösner is a magician who wields the baton. His Poulenc sparkles with freshness… The two rarely played symphonic poems by Charles Koechlin expand into spatial glitter and shimmer. A revelation!”Musik und Theater / March 2020

March 2020FIVE STARS
“Lively and cheeky
It’s nothing new that German orchestras can play French music. The Bamberger Symphoniker does it in an excellent way. The colours flow from all registers. In the middle of it all, Thomas Rösner is a magician who wields the baton. His Poulenc sparkles with freshness and sounds lively and cheeky. The two rarely played symphonic poems by Charles Koechlin expand into spatial glitter and shimmer. A revelation!”

Ingo Harden / April 2020“Colourful French orchestral music from the 20th century: “Couleurs”, the co-production by Odradek and Bavarian Radio, combines two large-scale works by Francis Poulenc with two rarities by Charles Koechlin.
In his four-part Sinfonietta from 1948, Poulenc almost completely renounced his earlier beloved “épater le bourgeois” in favour of a relaxed and transparent tonal language, which in its melodic flow is closer to Schubert than the tonally naked neoclassicalism of middle-period Stravinsky. And in the eclectically appealing Piano Concerto, Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky, even Mozart greet you.
Conscious of tradition, Poulenc’s teacher Koechlin, still one of the great unknowns of modern French music, also took up the style of late romantic tone poetry and tried in 1933 to create the impression of the inconceivable expanse of the “Starry sky” through a spacious work without fixed thematic contours to represent space.
The Bamberg Symphony Orchestra presents the four scores in a convincing manner, high-ranking in all sections and perfectly coordinated. Some things may sound a bit straightforward, “German”, for example when comparing them to older Sinfonietta recordings. In any case, the new production surpasses all its predecessors in the openness and breadth of its soundscape.
Only in the Concerto does the piano sound a bit too “embedded” to me - which Artur Pizarro’s playing really doesn’t deserve: it doesn’t set spectacular precedents, but is consistently superior, balanced and clear and sonorous right up to the fortissimo climaxes.”

Santiago Martín Bermúdez / April 2020“Both of Poulenc’s works contain two of his characteristics that make them bearable for the general public, irritating for a small minority, and especially interesting in terms of the fusion of modern elements and light music. There is a moment in the Piano Concerto that may remind you of Gershwin, and especially An American in Paris. It’s not a bad idea: a Parisian imitates the journey of an American through his own city. No, let’s say that it reflects what is called the Zeitgeist. These elaborate antics, Sinfonietta and Concerto, are not works of youth; both were composed and premiered in the immediate post-war period.
Koechlin’s works contrast with those of Poulenc. These titles suggest a lot: Towards the vault of stars; In the distant waters. Wow, we will have to wait for Takemitsu to get over titles like that. They are not symphonic poems, but almost. They are not programme music, but almost. Film music is not what’s intended, but that’s what they almost are. Koechlin was Poulenc’s teacher for some time, and at just a few years younger than Debussy he was, like so many musicians, placed in the shadow of the unsurpassed in music history. Rösner calls this recital “Couleurs”. That orchestral colour in which French composers always excel. Intoxicating sometimes, like in the Koechlin. Poulenc does not intoxicate, but wakes us up. Here, as if complementing the poet, we would say: the colour and the nuance, the couleur et la nuance, both, without excluding the other.
Artur Pizarro is an excellent accomplice to Poulenc’s Concerto. Rösner has his way: twinning these composers who were close for some time yet whose works are far removed. Rösner directs the Bamberg Symphony, which is in great shape. A very beautiful album; and Koechlin’s pieces, a discovery.”